Easter Weather history has lots of ups and downs

Members of the Seattle Mariners Baseball Team throw snow at Jacobs Field, Sunday, April 8, 2007, in Cleveland. The snow forced a doubleheader between the Mariners and Cleveland Indians to be postponed. (Tony Dejak, AP)

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CLEVELAND - Easter Weather has had lots of up's and down's over the years here in Northern Ohio.

History shows us that the weather on Easter Sunday in Northern Ohio can be very warm... or very cold... very dry... or very wet. Why? The main reason for the wide range of weather over the year's as Peter Cottontail hops down the Bunny Trail is because Easter does NOT occur on the same calendar day each year. Independence Day is always on the 4th of July. But, Easter does not have a set date every year. It is a "movable" Holiday. It occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. It can occur anywhere between March 22nd and the end of April. That's a loooooong stretch of time. Average temperatures over that period of time jump from around 50 degrees in late March to above 60 degrees by late April.

The last time it snowed on Easter Sunday in Northern Ohio was just a few years ago, on April 8th, 2007. Officially, Hopkins Airport registered just a little under an inch of snow. But that was just the tail end of a snow storm that began the day before, dumping 5 inches of snow at the airport. Farther east, the snow totals were more impressive across the snow belt. Easter egg hunts were held that Sunday, with kids in Chardon digging through 12 to 16 inches of new snow! The Cleveland Indians were forced to cancel a double header against the Seattle Mariners that day. It was the third day in a row the Tribe canceled baseball due to bad weather. The team was forced to travel to Milwaukee for the next series of home games, until the weather in Northern Ohio improved a week later.

Officially, the most snowfall on an Easter Sunday was back on March 29th, 1964. On that day, Hopkins Airport recorded 1.7 inches of snow, with another 2.2 inches falling the next day.

Snow (at least a trace) has been recorded in Cleveland on 24 out of the the 113 Easters since 1900. That's 21-percent of the time.

On the other hand, the warmest Easter Sunday occurred on April 18th, 1976 & April 13, 1941. On those two days, highs reached 83 degrees.

On the other hand, on March 24th, 1940, the high temperature on that Easter Sunday was 16 degrees. The low that morning was 9. That was the coldest Easter Holiday in Greater Cleveland since 1900.